Related Content:

In-Cab Driving Alerts

How Alerting Drivers with GPS Tracking Can Save Lives

GPS tracking solutions are being used far beyond their tactical capabilities these days. They can be customized to meet the important needs of organizations to solve their challenges. One of the biggest challenges organizations face is fleet safety.

Recently, a food delivery fleet came to GPS Insight with a unique safety challenge. They were looking for a GPS tracking solution with in-cab driver alerts to warn their drivers of upcoming correction curves.

Correction Curves

Correction curves come from a miscalculation where a highway will meet at state lines. This causes the need for correction curves (shown in Figure 1). A severe sharp turn must be constructed in order for the disjointed highway to connect.

Figure 1

The Challenge

Correction curves present a unique challenge for fleets with heavy-duty vehicles. They are recognized as a safety hazard for larger vehicles because correction curves are often unanticipated and unexpected. If a larger vehicle approaches a correction curve too quickly, it’s near impossible to slow down in time to make the turn safely. This can lead to rollover accidents, and in some instances, fatalities.

A food delivery fleet that experienced a few rollovers and even one fatality over the course of 60 days started researching GPS tracking technology to find a solution to this safety challenge. To prevent rollovers and ensure the safety of their drivers and the public, they were in need of a solution that could warn drivers inside the cab when they were approaching correction curves so they could reduce the speed of their vehicles and safely make the turn.

How It Was Solved

To solve this unique safety challenge, fleets can use a GPS tracking solution to create landmarks, or geo-fences, around dangerous stretches of road. By setting landmark alerts for these correction curves, the delivery fleet is now able to notify their drivers as soon as they enter the landmark of any correction curve. Figure 2 shows the landmarked zone with the correction curve identified in the middle. The “Landmark Alert Zone” was drawn to scale a half mile away from the correction curve on either side.

Figure 2

Because this was such a major safety hazard, the food delivery fleet wanted to take extra precaution to ensure drivers did not miss the alert. To meet this need, custom functionality was added to the landmark alert to trigger a buzzer and flashing light when their driver enters the correction curve landmark. The buzzer and light were mounted to the dash of the vehicles to ensure drivers would not miss the warning signal when approaching correction curves.

Accident Rate of Zero

As demonstrated with this unique use case, GPS tracking in-cab alerts have the ability to notify drivers and/or managers of situations that require immediate attention. Having the ability to notify drivers of potentially hazardous driving conditions directly inside the cab made an immediate and significant impact on this delivery business. Since implementing GPS tracking with GPS Insight and these custom in-cab alerts, their accident and fatality rate is zero.

Ready To Take The Next Step?

Request more information about GPS Insight and how telematics can help your organization.